The invention generally relates to upgrading a BIOS.
Operating systems have continually evolved. For example, older computer systems (8086, 8088 or 80286 processor-based computer systems, as examples) use sixteen bit real mode operating systems, such as MS-DOS operating systems. However, these operating systems lack multi-tasking and memory management features provided by more recent operating systems, such as thirty-two bit and sixty-four bit virtual mode operating systems.
A typical computer system includes a basic input/output system (BIOS), a term that refers to firmware that, when executed, controls various functions (keyboard, disk drives and display screen functions, for example) of the computer system at a basic level. Due to its ability to control the disk drives when the computer system “boots up,” the BIOS is responsible for loading the operating system. In this manner, the typical computer system boots up by executing BIOS instructions that cause a operating system loader program to be loaded from a disk drive into system memory. The BIOS may then cause the computer system to execute the loader program that, in turn, causes the computer system to load portions of the operating system into the system memory. Subsequently, the operating system may execute one or more program(s) to initialize and start execution of the operating system.
The BIOS image (i.e., the program code and parameter space that define the BIOS) is stored in a memory that does not lose its stored contents when power to the computer system is removed. For example, the BIOS image may be stored in a FLASH memory, an erasable electrically programmable read only memory (EEPROM) that may be rapidly updated. Thus, due to its storage in the FLASH memory, the existing BIOS image may be replaced to upgrade the BIOS. However, a difficulty with updating the BIOS is that for some operating systems (a sixty-four bit operating system, for example), the existing BIOS image that is stored in the FLASH contains configuration data (boot options and other configuration data, for example) that is specific to the particular computer system. Therefore, when the existing BIOS image is replaced, the existing configuration data is overwritten, which means the configuration data must be reconstructed. Unfortunately, rebuilding of the configuration data may be a time-consuming process in that a user of the computer system may be prompted to manually select various options for purposes of rebuilding the configuration data.
Thus, there exists a continuing need for a technique to address one or more of the problems that are stated above.